Creating a website: Getting Started & Best Practices

RiSE is where you create, manage, and publish seamless web content experiences. Create web pages that provide dynamic or static data internally to staff users or externally to members and donors.

Use this Getting Started Guide to perform any of the following tasks:

  • Learn about iMIS RiSE websites and the various configuration options
  • How to create a website based on a copy of a Quick Start Site
  • Creating your own website content and website themes
  • Working with Sitemaps and Shortcuts
  • Learn about website accessibility and advanced features

Understanding the Quick Start Sites

Quick Start Sites are out-of-the-box iMIS websites that you can easily copy to create custom sites for your organization. Quick Start Sites showcase some of the more complex enhancements in iMIS, such as new dynamic content items, functionality, and user-interface improvements as they become available.

Quick Start Sites are designed to be copied and tailored using powerful RiSE tools to create a unique web presence for your organization.

Configuring RiSE Settings

Review the following important settings to configure when building a public RiSE website:

Creating a custom website from a Quick Start Site (Site Builder)

There are many out-of-the-box Quick Start Sites available to use as a starting point for your own custom RiSE website. It is recommended that the website is copied, so that you can make changes to the copied website without having those changes overwritten on the next upgrade.

Deciding which website to copy

Before you copy a Quick Start Site, decide which one you would like to copy and use as the starting point for your custom website.

Copying and publishing the website and related content

To create your own personalized website, you can copy a Quick Start Site and make changes to the copy. When you copy a website, iMIS duplicates the site navigation and content records for the new site.

Reviewing the copied website and related navigation

Before you begin updating website content, you should review and understand the settings defined in the copied website to confirm they are correctly configured.

Creating custom content (Page Builder)

Defining and publishing website content happens from RiSE > Page Builder > Manage content. The Manage content menu item contains a filtered view of the document system where all available website content records, or web pages, are organized into content folders.

A content folder is automatically generated for each new website, and when a website is copied, the content records and folders housed within the original website's parent content folder are automatically duplicated into the new website's folder. To manage or add content for a specific website, navigate to its corresponding folder.

Review the following information to learn more about creating and managing website content:

Making the content available on public websites (Sitemaps & Shortcuts)

Adding the content to your site consists of updating the sitemap and shortcuts, both of which can be done through the Site Builder. Sitemaps define a hierarchy of navigation items. Each iMIS RiSE website has a corresponding sitemap. Shortcuts allow users to update a shortcut link one time which updates all areas that use the same shortcut.

Viewing the content and continuing to make changes

Once you have created website content, it is important to view the published content to ensure there are no issues. If issues arise, review the following recommendations regarding editing existing content:

Updating the theme (Theme Builder)

Website themes are an important part of the website creation process. The theme enables website designers to determine the styling, fonts, layout, colors, and more of a website.

Best Practices

Review the following best practices when creating your website:

Advanced RiSE features

RiSE has many advanced features to further customize your website and your members' website experience. Review the following advanced features: